5 May 2008
Italy has become the first country to sell the iPhone on a non-exclusive basis, meaning that Apple's strategy of holding its device to one network in each territory has been broken.
Vodafone and Telecom Italia revealed that they had both won contracts to bring the iPhone to Italy in the latter part of 2008. This ends the battle where only one operator had the right to the iPhone in each country.
Vodafone also announced it had won the right to distribute the device in nine other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and India.
Apple now faces the concern that operators in other countries may revolt against its strict terms, which have been revealed to involve the network sharing 10% of revenues in return for the right distribute the iPhone exclusively for a two-year period.
Will Draper, an analyst at Execution, said:
This is definitely a sign Apple is capitulating, the initial model was that Apple would give the iPhone to a network on an exclusive basis, but in Europe, where you have the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson selling sophisticated 3G devices, the iPhone simply isn't seen as such a premium product.
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